The Failure Of The 1320s And 30s

During the 1320s and 30s, the king’s revenues – and with that, his power over the whole country – had been turned over to foreign, in particular Holstein, princes as well as the Swedish king. The pawned revenues functioned as security for large amounts that were in part lent to finance the Crown’s failed policies, and was partly the result of political blackmail.
In actuality, these so-called pledgees held all the castles of the kingdom, and therefore had the physical power in the country while at the same time collecting the royal incomes, by means of which their dues yielded interest. After eight years without a king, Valdemar IV was appointed king in 1340. During his 35 years as king, he succeeded in establishing a monarchy of unprecedented strength; among other things, he secured complete control over the church, and through dominion over a fairly tight network of castles he secured efficient physical power over all areas of the country.
The foreign pledgees and their subcontractors intended to take full advantage of the situation while the opportunity was there. Foreign merchants and Danish clergymen were exposed to regular muggings, and the broad population was certainly also severely affected. For the squires, who could increasingly be characterised as nobility with inherited privileges, this development also meant that they lost their traditional opportunities for income and power as the administrators of the Crown. This led to a violent revolt, at least among the Jutlandic squires, which culminated with Niels Ebbesen’s killing of the Jutlandic-Funen pledgee, Count Gert, 1 April